


Insufficient Forces

by AKioshiWarrior



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Suicidal Thoughts, Well - Freeform, how much? to be determined, kind of, they're implied
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:54:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26891740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AKioshiWarrior/pseuds/AKioshiWarrior
Summary: You turn around to see Gray sitting on the steps of the school.“I told you if you left without my permission, I would kill ten students a day. And yet you… didn’t listen. You must think me a demon of empty threats. Well, I am a demon of my word.”He gestures to the big tree where you see ten unconscious students tied around it. And he yells, “Sic ‘em!” and you see a dozen hellhounds tear towards them.
Relationships: Argo Keene & Rainer, Argo Keene & Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt, Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt & Rainer
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	Insufficient Forces

**Author's Note:**

> Not super sure how to tag this quite yet, so I'll probably be updating the ratings and stuff in the future. There is violence, and some bloody descriptions, but I'm not sure if they're gory? There is direct mention of dismemberment, but I don't get too much into details because I'm a little sensitive myself. Also, there's implied suicidal ideation. It's brief, but if you're particularly sensitive to that stuff, I wouldn't read this. I'm planning on writing other chapters, maayyybe? And if I do, there's going to be heavier tones of that.

“Graaaayyy,” Fitzroy whined as he took a fighting stance. “Don’tcha think you should be a little more lenient the first time round? It’s not like I _intentionally_ left campus, it was an honest to goodness accident.” A hellhound jumped at him and he punched it in the jaw.

Argo, Rainer, and the two pegasi contributed to the fight as well as they could. They were outnumbered. If Fitzroy could talk Gray down quickly, they could save the students.

Gray stood up from his seat. Fitzroy could swear there was actual flame flickering in his eyes. “We made an _agreement_ , and whether you _intended_ to or not, you left campus without _my express permission_.”

Talking him down wasn’t working. “Look, Gray. It’s been a long day. I’ve established that I’ve run out of patience—”

“ _You’ve_ run out of patience? I’ve been kind to you, _Sir Fitzroy_.” The hellhounds were closing in on the students. “You have _mocked_ and _disrespected_ me, and I have been courteous in response. I gave you fair warning.”

Fitzroy was so tempted to punch Gray in the face. To go into a rage and destroy the demon prince immediately. That would make things worse, yes, but it would be so satisfying. And maybe Gray would kill him, and he wouldn’t have to plan a war, he wouldn’t have to be Chaos’s weapon anymore—

Fitz shook his head. He managed to grab a hellhound and slam it into the ground, killing it. He spun around to move towards the tree, only to be paralyzed.

“You disobeyed me and you _will_ face the consequences.”

Gray raised a clawed hand. Fitzroy and Argo fell to their knees and Rainer sat stiff in her chair. One of the hellhounds had apprehended both pegasi. The rest of them had made it to the tree.

Fitzroy wanted to close his eyes and look away, but found himself incapable of doing so. He managed to resist some of Gray’s magic and began to bow his head only for Gray to grab him by his hair and force his head up.

At least Rainer and Argo didn’t have to see it. They were facing him instead.

Fitzroy restrained himself from crying out in horror as he watched the hellhounds tear the students apart. Some of them woke up from their unconscious state while being attacked. Their screams were too much to bear. Rainer’s face scrunched up with tears running down her cheeks. There was a tremor in her hands as she tried to resist the spell. Argo looked absolutely distraught. He flinched whenever he heard a scream or the sound of the hounds tearing limbs off of _(mostly)_ dead bodies.

It felt like eons before it stopped. The dogs left no corpse behind. Only mangled, burnt bones. Fitzroy fell forward onto his arms when Gray relinquished his hold. Rainer collapsed in her chair and Argo buried his face in his hands.

“Well,” Gray chided, “I hope you’ve learned your lesson. At least there’s not much cleanup left to do.” A tear in space appeared with a snap and the hellhounds went back to their dimension. “I’ll expect to see you around campus for the next few months.” And he walked away.

As soon as Gray disappeared, Fitzroy raged and punched the ground. He felt a few of his fingers snap, but he ignored the pain. His blood was boiling and he needed to release that pressure. He wanted to hit something, destroy, obliterate something. He thought that was Chaos talking. He wouldn't let them control him.

Rainer rushed over to the tree desperately searching for anyone she could revive. Argo pushed himself off the ground and cast a glance around where he last saw Fitzroy.

“Fitz?”

Fitzroy groaned. “What is it, Argo?”

A second passed. “Fitzroy?”

“What,” he snapped and looked up at the genasi. Argo wasn’t looking at him, though. He was scanning the area around him in confusion.

“Rainer,” Argo’s voice rose with panic. “Fitz is gone!”

Fitzroy watched dumbfounded as Rainer appeared next to Argo. Her cheeks were flushed and her brow was furrowed. “He wouldn’t have left campus. Not after that. Did he do some kind of spell?”

“His magic could’a gone off again, I s'pose. I just hope it didn’t teleport him anywhere, though I doubt that’d be an issue...”

“Didn’t that guy say he would kill more students if Fitzroy left?”

“Gray? Well, yeah. But from what I remember, that was so he could keep an eye on him for their ‘mutual benefactor’. They share the same source of magic or somethin’. It’s—well, that’s somethin’ you could talk to Fitz about.” Argo paused. “Rainer, what’s wrong?”

Fitzroy gave a hollow laugh. What’s wrong? Ten students were just eaten alive by a bunch of hellhounds, Argo. What kind of question is that?

Rainer clenched her fists in her lap. “No one’s left,” she whispered. “I had hoped — I thought I could have saved one of them. I could’ve revived them, but they’re all gone. There’s nothing to resurrect.” Angry tears threatened to fall from her eyes.

“Aw, hey. C’mere.” Argo enveloped Rainer in a hug. “That’s not your fault. You did everything ya could.”

“No,” she growled. “It’s my fault he got transported off of campus! I could’ve told my dad, ‘Hey, could you make sure that this summoning circle transports you to the school? ‘Cause like, there’s a demon prince running around trying to make Fitzroy’s life a living hell, and I don’t exactly know the consequences if he were to go missing’. Then dad wouldn’t have been so _extra_ , and he wouldn’t have kidnapped Fitz and there wouldn’t be _ten dead students!”_

Fitzroy cleared his throat. “To be fair, I didn’t tell you about the whole _‘I’m going to kill ten students a day if you disappear’_ thing in the first place.” Neither of them looked in his direction.

“I should’a stayed behind. I could’a kept Gray preoccupied or made up an excuse so he wouldn’t’ve gotten them.”

Argo and Rainer sat in silence for a minute, supporting each other. Fitzroy watched them from the ground, waiting for his invisibility to wear off.

Argo finally saw him. “Fitz!” Rainer shot up to full attention at the sudden appearance of her friend. “Where’d ya go off to?”

“Nowhere. I’ve just been sitting here.”

“Fitzroy, your hand,” Rainer gasped.

He groaned. “Yeah, I did a rage and punched the ground pretty hard, so, there’s probably a couple of broken bones in there.”

“No, it’s glowing.”

“What?” Fitzroy turned to look at his hand. Sure enough, his fingertips were splattered with what looked like opalescent paint. It looked like a lichtenberg figure. The colors shifted beneath his skin. Not too different from Chaos’. “It’s fine. I uh, it’s cool. Nothin’ new. Definitely happened before.”

He could tell she didn’t believe him. She didn’t pry, though, which was kind of her.

The three of them stood in silence for a few minutes, staring at the ground. “We should take the pegasi to the barn,” Rainer spoke. Argo and Fitz nodded in agreement, and the three of them worked together to lead/drag their escorts to the barn.

Fitzroy silently opened the door to the barn and led his friends inside. “Um, do you think anyone is going to be in here? Like, someone who could help patch these guys up, or—or cast some magic-y healing spell on them?”

“There’s an animal handling professor who _might_ be here?” Rainer shifted her hold on one of the pegasi. “It’s pretty late though, so he’s probably asleep in the school or something.”

“Let’s find ‘em an empty stall,” Argo suggested. “Should we just… I dunno, do we stay here with them?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

They walked through the barn until they found an empty stall large enough for both pegasi. Once settled, Argo assessed their wounds.

“Fitz, could’ya find me some bandages and some salve or somethin'? There oughta be a stash of medical-ish stuff somewhere around here.”

Rainer cocked her head slightly. “You know how to heal, Argo?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Ah, no. Not really. I can just bandage things up, nothin’ too fancy.”

While Rainer continued to ask Argo about what he knew and how he learned, Fitz slipped away to search for supplies. When he returned, the pegasi were nestled together and Argo was hauling a bucket of water to a trough. Fitzroy struggled to keep up his noble facade at this point. He was exhausted emotionally and mentally after what had happened. Pretending that everything was fine was hard enough. Pretending to be someone other than a farm boy in a barn full of animals proved to be harder.

“Blankets?” Rainer inquired.

“I didn’t see anyone else around, so I figured if we’re going to be staying the night here, we might as well make ourselves comfortable.” He shifted. “Argo, quick question. How uh, how many horses have you bandaged before? Or any equine creature, I suppose.”

“Uh, none, actually.” Argo placed the bucket of water in front of the two pegasi. “I’ve only learned mendin’ things up on crewmates an’ myself, really.”

Dang it. He trusted Argo enough to take care of the pegasi to the best of his abilities, but he _knew_ how to take care of wounded farm animals. That was a little closer to what they were dealing with at the moment. He trusted his own abilities a little more than Argo’s with this situation. He would just need to avoid questions about the origins of his skill set. Even then, giving these creatures proper care was more important than his public image. (Although it wasn't really his 'public' image when he was in front of friends, was it?) “I see. Well then, do you mind if I work on our friends here?”

“Oh! Uh, no. Go right ahead.”

Fitzroy nodded and set down the supplies to roll up his sleeves. “Argo, go fetch some cold water. Rainer, could you help me out?” She nodded and moved next to him. “Here’s some gauze. I need you to apply pressure there.” He pointed to a wound on the lighter pegasus’ side where blood was flowing from.

With Fitzroy’s instruction and Argo and Rainer’s help, the three of them managed to patch up the pegasi pretty well. Fitzroy decided to leave the wings mainly untouched, only applying bandages to areas that clearly needed them. He wasn’t sure how to take care of those, and hopefully they’d be okay until the morning.

They were all exhausted once they finished. Argo shuffled off into a corner and fell asleep as soon as he put his head on the ground. Fitzroy tossed a wadded up blanket at him and turned to Rainer.

“I — Rainer, I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight.”

“No. I don’t… I don’t think I can either.”

“Hm. I’ll keep you awake if you keep me awake.”

“Deal. Could we like, sit on the ground or something though? I can’t recline in this thing, so...”

“Oh, defo. Here.” He offered his arm for her to steady herself as she stood up.

“Minimize,” she whispered.

Fitzroy watched in awe as the chair shrunk and she placed it in her bag. “Woah, that’s super rad! That does explain how you were able to get to your dad’s place with it.”

Rainer cracked a smile. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool.” They walked over to Argo. “Um, could you help me sit down real quick?”

“Of course.”

The two of them settled down on a blanket Argo had put down earlier. Rainer tossed Fitzroy another blanket, grabbing one for herself in the process. She wrapped herself up and leaned into the wall, drawing her knees up. “That was impressive. With the pegasi, I mean.”

“Oh! Well… I’d hardly call it impressive,” Fitzroy stuttered. “It’s a basic skill you’re required to learn at Clyde Nite’s. You know, how to take care of your horse when you can’t give it proper medical attention immediately…”

“They taught you that at a knight school?”

“Yup.”

"Huh. I never would've thought."

"Mm."

Fitzroy played with the edge of the blanket Rainer got him. It was doing little to ease his anxiety, but it gave his hands something to do. He was waiting for Rainer to ask him about Chaos. She never did.

Instead, they sat in silence and waited for the sun to rise.

**Author's Note:**

> This definitely wasn't everything I wanted to write. I have a lot more planned that I just didn't get around to doing, but I wanted to post this before I listened to the next episode. I'm super pumped to hear what happens next! Travis is doing an amazing job with this campaign and that last episode was just *chef's kiss* perfect.  
> Also, sorry if this is difficult to read or doesn't make much sense. I didn't get a beta reader before I published this, so it's probably not the best. Let me know what you think, and give me any suggestions you have for improving my writing! I haven't written anything since 11th grade, so I'm pretty rusty on those fic writing skills.


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